Relief As Marijuana Taxes In Colorado Up Over 100% For First 6 Months 2015

COLORADO MARIJUANA “EXPERIMENT” SHOWS WHAT’S POSSIBLE

With more data coming in from Colorado, those concerned about last year’s marijuana tax revenue missing projections are breathing a sigh of relief. For the first six months of 2015, Colorado’s marijuana tax revenues were $54 million, compared to just $25 million for the same period last year, an increase of 121%.

The real beneficiaries of the Colorado’s astonishing increase in the marijuana taxes collected are the state’s public schools and other government services. It will be interesting to see how students in Colorado benefit from such a large flow of “found money” on an annual basis. It would not be surprising to see students in states like Colorado, flush with new marijuana tax revenues, shoot to the top of national rankings as those funds are utilized for their benefit.

Other states, many of them running in the red, are no doubt watching the Colorado “experiment” to see if similar successes can be had in their own states. So far, the evidence is compelling in favor of marijuana legalization. Colorado hasn’t become a den of potheads on the road looking for “hard” drugs. As Colorado’s Gov. John Hickenlooper stated back in February “The people who were smoking marijuana before legalization still are. Now, they’re paying taxes.”

Here is how the monthly Colorado marijuana taxes break down for the first half of 2015 vs 2014.